Wallace often worried about the overwhelming amount of irony on television – talking heads poking fun at those watching the show while viewers laugh along at themselves, neither party doing much to fix their apparent boredom with the shallowness of the medium.

Lewis argues that honors such as the Pulitzer serve the committees who award them rather than receivers of the award; these committees become the enforcers of taste and threaten to decrease the creativity of future authors:

“I invite other writers to consider the fact that by accepting the prizes and approval of these vague institutions we are admitting their authority, publicly confirming them as the final judges of literary excellence, and I inquire whether any prize is worth that subservience.”

A “mystery knitter” has taken to the streets in Edinburgh, protesting the city’s tram system.

The form of protest is being called “yarn-bombing,” which involves crafty individuals knitting signs of protest, rather than the traditional picket signs or graffiti. Not all yarn-bombing is done in protest, however, some people add their knittings to benches and other public areas to spruce up the local scenery.

Open Culture compiles Eisenhower Answers America, the ad campaign that lead to Dwight D. Eisenhower’s victory in the 1952 presidential election. Eisenhower was an American war hero, and the use of television only solidified his legendary status with American voters, proving televised advertisements an invaluable resource for political campaigns.

In commemoration of Banned Books Week (September 30th – October 6th), Guernica will be posting interviews with authors whose work was deemed too controversial. The site will also post essays that explore numerous censored texts:

“In recognition of this week, against censorship, and in support of writers and readers, the Guernica Daily will be publishing interviews with authors whose books have been banned or challenged and essays on works of fiction that have been oft removed from schools, libraries and book stores.”

You can read Katie Ryder’s full introduction to next week’s postings here.

Fourteen comedians of varying popularity are interviewed, all of whom touch on similar themes – such as why certain televisions shows are criticized more than others for a lack of race representation, why the 1980s were a golden era for black representation, and the problem with assuming that America is now “post-racial,” as discussed by comedian Jayson Cross:

“‘Post-racial’ is a semantic veneer we put to make it look smooth and sparkly.

The site will be traveling up and down the west coast to Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle. In each city, there will be a pop-up shop featuring goodies from local San Francisco stores, an art show curated by Dan Johnson Lake, Berlin Style Ping-Pong, and much more!

mental_floss presents brief histories of five spy tunnels. Tunnels were a major spy tool through World War II, but most of these underground projects ended up compromised by double agents, or being abandoned all together due to the difficulty and price involved in their construction.

The Smithsonian delves into the history of nylon stockings in their recent “Stocking Series.”

Although these accessories may seem everyday and even out of fashion to us, the Smithsonian covers the mayhem surrounding the product’s introduction in the first installment of the series, a mayhem that only intensified as nylon was monopolized for army use during World War II:

“When the war was over and rations were eased, nylon stockings returned to stores and sold quickly.

September is a big month for the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. Currently, they are looking for local poets to submit their work for Poets 11, the fourth annual poetry contest that aims to find poetry from all 11 of San Francisco’s districts:

Jowita Bydlowska muses about how authors can bear to write about jerks, for Hazlitt.

Assholes are necessary to a story in the sense that their baffling behavior makes for a better story. However, getting into the mind frame of these characters can cause distress in the mind of an author.

Distraught, a fan took to comedian Chris Gethard’s Tumblr, asking if Gethard had ever had suicidal thoughts. Despite asking anonymously, the fan made it more than clear that they are dealing with depression. In response, Gethard posted an extremely sensitive and heartfelt answer that details his history of depression – starting with planning suicide as a high school freshman, to attempting to cut his wrists while in college.

Gawker reports on a London movie theater’s new tactic to keep moviegoers well behaved. The Prince Charles theater offers free movies to those who agree to don a black leotard, covering their entire body, and maintain order throughout the screening. If audience members begin to talk, use their phones, or behave in any other distracting manner, the “cinema ninjas” will attack.

McSweeney’s recently published How Music Works, a book by David Byrne that explains all aspects of music, from creation, to distribution, to performance.

In recent years, Byrne has released chapters of the book as individual works: this TED talk about architecture’s effect on music; and this piece for Wired about record distribution, in which he interviews Radiohead about their [then] recent “pay what you wish” release of In Rainbows, as well as explains exactly how the money, in a traditional major label record deal, from an album purchase is distributed.

Big Other interviews Rumpus contributor Alex Gallo-Brown about his poetry collection, The Language of Grief, and how itled to a community gift giving project. Using Kickstarter, Gallo-Brown offered readers the options of donating money or exchanging gifts with one another in exchange for his book:

” I gave people two options for helping me put my book out into the world.

You can help support Hold On Another Day and Project Believe In Me, two largely youth-run organizations that fight bullying, by contributing to the production of their compilation album, “Songs For Project Believe In Me.” Once the album is completed, the organizations will match each purchase by giving a copy of the album to a teen dealing with bullying.

The New Yorker recently posted a cartoon which features a naked, and post-coital, Adam and Eve to their Facebook page. What resulted was a kerfuffle between the magazine and social media site over their nudity regulation policies. Specifically, Facebook took issue with Eve’s cartoon nipples, leading to the magazine’s Facebook page being temporarily shut down.

Nature investigates the rising number of terrorism attacks, and threats, against researchers in the field of nanotechnology. Those perpetrating the violence claim to be environmental activists, and believe that nanotechnology will result in further harm to our planet. They are not afraid to make their mission known:

“The next day, an eco-anarchist group calling itself Individuals Tending Towards Savagery (ITS) claimed responsibility for the bombing in a 5,500-word diatribe against nanotechnology that it published online.

The Violet Flowers Motel is located in Brantford, Ontario, and is considered by some to be home to drug dealing and prostitution; to others, the motel is the site of violent murders; some think it a nice place, just off the highway, to get a night’s rest.

Everyday Africa is a Tumblr that compiles pictures – altered via iPhone applications such as Instagram and Hipstamatic – of life in Africa. The project was started by a group of photographers looking to prove that these apps can be used in photojournalism.

The Atlanticwas lucky enough to take a behind the scenes tour of Google Maps headquarters.

During this tour, the incredible amounts of information gathered and processed by the tech giant is made very clear. They aim to make all information available in the physical world available in the digital world.

Jack Taylor is a Rumpus Intern, gangly fellow, and Steal the Bacon enthusiast.

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